Quito is located right on the equator, so it has no hot/cold seasons. It is located at a high elevation, so the temperature is always mild…but take a wrap if you want to visit the higher altitude parts of the city.

Ecuador’s currency is tied to the U.S. dollar, so you do not need to change currency.

From time to time IHG will include a Quito hotel on its PointBreaks list, which is how I was able to do a multi-day visit to the city for only $35 per day.

The six are American Airlines, Frontier, JetBlue, Silver Airways, Southwest, and Sun Country. They will fly to Cuban cities other than Havana, but in the future some may be approved to that popular destination.

The origination cities in the US are Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Chicago, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and Philadelphia.

Americans continue to face significant obstacles to Cuban travel, due to the continuing “12 reasons” rule. Abolition of these restrictions may depend upon Congressional action.

If you have status on one airline or hotel chain, you may be able to have another airline or hotel chain match it. So, for example, if you are Gold on American Airlines and are a nobody on AirBerlin, you can request a status match on AB before your next flight and receive the privileges that your new (temporary) AB status grants.

This post from Dan’s Deals is a very useful summary.

http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/87542

The airlines covered in the blog post are AirBerlin, Alaska, American, Delta, JetBlue, Turkish, United and Virgin America.

The hotel chains covered are Hilton, Hyatt and Starwood.

If you have any airline/hotel status and plan to fly or stay in any of those named brands, you are in luck!

Credit card bonuses are the driving force behind the miles-and-points game that many play. Card issuers offer huge numbers of frequent-flyer miles and hotel loyalty points to those who sign up for and use certain credit cards. But, the signup bonuses aren’t the only benefit of those cards. This blog post lists nine more:

This summer the U.S. government will award permission for 30 flights per day from the United States to Cuba…20 to Havana, 10 to smaller cities. Airlines applying for these need to tell why they are a good choice, and why the other airlines are not.

So, the airlines have come out swinging.

JetBlue says it is the “leading domestic airline at JFK,” a claim which Delta described as “demonstrably false.”

Southwest applied for 9 of the 20 daily flights to Havana, saying it can offer lower fares than its competitors…even lower than Spirit. American Airlines described some of Southwest’s application as “absurd.”